BUSHkids Annual Report 2015-16

LEADS

Professional Leads

Family Health SupportWorkers

OccupationalTherapists

It’s incredible thinking back to this time last year and reflecting upon how much has happened in what feels like such a short space of time! BUSHkids continues to provide its staff with opportunities, challenges, learnings and wisdom. I continue to find the role of FHSW Professional Lead to be one that is exciting yet challenging, inspiring yet testing. The support of my Professional Leadership colleagues and Clinical Services Manager is invaluable as we try our very best to lead, support and guide our staff from afar, and as we take on board and run with the strategic directions of the organisation. I would like to thank all FHSW team members, who, with the experience and skill that exists collectively amongst the team, have assisted me to provide professional leadership to them all. Every FHSW brings to the team a varied background, skill-set, and knowledge base which jointly offers high quality care and support to the children and families of BUSHkids. I would also like to acknowledge how wonderful it has been to have Marianne Taylor join our service as the EIF Professional Lead – her wisdom and experience has made a huge impact for many! 2015-16 was a very busy year, with successful delivery of multiple group programs. Each FHSW worked particularly hard to meet activity targets and to attribute more of their time to clinical rather than admin activity. FHSWs have continued to receive exceptionally positive feedback post-delivery of group programs, for example: “COS taught me to see my child’s needs rather than see his tantrums…which makes me a stronger wiser kinder parent” . We’ve also made huge progress in employing family-centred principles of care: for example, providing parents with feedback about their child’s functioning in the group and raising any concerns noted; encouraging parents to continue with skills learnt in the program to consolidate learning and strive for better outcomes for the child; ensuring that referrals (internal and external) are made after completion of the group program where indicated. Through supervision and team meetings, FHSWs have increased their awareness of social constructs including domestic and family violence; child protection; impacts of chronic disadvantage upon children and families; impacts of trauma upon child and family functioning; social determinants of health; impact of adverse childhood events upon health outcomes; cultural considerations to practice; parental mental health impacts; impacts of grief and loss. This will ultimately lead to a more holistic approach to the child and family’s care planning and care management. We continue to meet on a monthly basis, building a new structure around how we use this time together. We are currently trialling a system whereby we rotate through a three-monthly cycle of admin, PD, peer supervision / case presentation meetings. We have also held two planning meetings exploring the strengths, priorities and goals we hold as an FHSW team, particularly as many team members are formulating PADPs. All were readily able to identify how their role makes a real difference to children and families. The last 12 months have seen the development of a stronger sense of professional identity and connectivity rather than working in silos. FHSWs have identified more strongly as a professional team despite having varying qualifications skills and experience. My focus has been on helping everyone see the commonalities of their role and their practice, to help them work out what their core skills, strengths and areas of focus should and do look like, and to constantly be on the lookout for peer mentoring and support opportunities.

As I reflect on the previous year and commence writing my contribution for the 2015–2016 report, it is not hard to feel a little proud of the number of goals achieved and activities undertaken during this time. It was also encouraging to see the raising of BUSHkids’ profile across Queensland, and increased recognition by local, state and federal levels of government of the vital work undertaken by our services in regional and rural areas. This period saw my continued role in BUSHkids’ clinical leadership team, supervision of BUSHkids’ Occupational Therapists and additional responsibilities – including being the convener for BUSHkids’ annual Conference and support to the Clinical Services Manager.

THEYEAR IN GENERAL

The OT team met regularly via Skype for discipline- specific meetings to discuss clinical issues, operational issues and complete in-services around topics including toileting, sensory processing and skill acquisition. A peer support network was established, with newer, less experienced OTs establishing regular phone contact with one another across the state. This fulfilled an important role in providing peer support and reducing feelings of isolation often felt as the sole OT on the team. Occupational Therapy services provided by BUSHkids in this period saw a shift to include more targeted programs for early intervention including Fingergym, The Alert Program, and Sleepwise. Other OT team activities during this period included the successful implementation of a standardised outcome measure – the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) – for goal-setting with families and pre- and post-measurement on performance and participation in goal areas. Collation of completed COPMs during this time revealed statistically significant positive change across all goal areas, highlighting the effectiveness of occupational therapy clinical intervention provided by BUSHkids.

THETEAM

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